As the selling season for fashion items progresses from planning to clearance, fashion items are often transferred between warehouses to meet the needs of stores. Each fashion item typically includes multiple Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). For example if the item is a blouse, the SKUs are the specific color and size combinations for the blouse, such as a medium white blouse or a small black blouse. Transferring the correct combinations of SKUs from one warehouse location to another helps to ensure the receiving warehouse location is sent a variety of sizes to meet the demand of the selling store locations which it servers, which in turn helps to maximize profits and reduce markdown liabilities at the store level.
A “size profile” is a distribution or collection of ratios that express the contribution of each of an item's multiple types or SKUs within a total quantity of the item. While the term “size profile” will be used throughout this description and examples will be in a fashion context, the systems and methods herein are also suitable for use in any industry in which multiple types or SKUs are present for a given item and stores sell different distributions of the types or SKUs (e.g., upholstery color for furniture might be sold according to a color profile, flavors of ice cream according to a flavor profile, and so on).